


It's Only Goodbye

by faequeentitania



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: EPIX Dream Ending, F/M, Introspection, Redeemed Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 08:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16091804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faequeentitania/pseuds/faequeentitania
Summary: "You're not staying, are you? You're going with him."





	It's Only Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I've been thinking about recently, and a nice change of pace to jump back into canon-verse in the midst of all my AU writing.

“You’re not staying, are you?”

The question was soft and sad, and pulled Rey’s gaze from the other side of the hangar, from the ramp of the _Falcon_.

“What?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Finn’s face, processed the resigned kind of melancholy pressed into every feature.

“You’re not staying,” he repeated with a long, soft sigh, “are you? You’re going with him.”

They were celebrating. The hangar was alive with cheering, laughing, and honestly she wouldn’t be surprised if music broke out any minute. Finn should be too, and so should she; if ever there was a time for celebration, this was it. The First Order was in shambles, their core fleet destroyed, their iron grip on the galaxy broken. The war was over, this was the beginning of renewal, a new start for the galaxy, a chance for peace. It was a peace that people like Finn could thrive in.

Maybe she could too. Maybe even scavenger girls from Jakku could carve out a place in this new universe. Maybe even the Last Jedi could.

But not yet. Not when there was a bruised, hurting, beautiful man sitting at the bottom of the _Falcon_ ’s ramp, waiting for her. Not when the galaxy was not yet capable of kindness toward him, capable of mercy. They wouldn’t see him worthy of mercy; not when there was so much damage on the road behind him, so much blood and carnage. They wouldn’t see how he had worked the past year to undo it; risking his life every time he gave Rey information, every time he opened his mind across the galaxy to show her blueprints, battle plans, alliances. They wouldn’t see the wounds in his shoulder, his side, his thigh, as near-misses; they’d see missed opportunities.

Rey looked into Finn’s sad, resigned eyes, and gave him the truth.

“Yes,” she said softly, “I’m going with him.”

Finn sighed again, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at the floor. “There’s really nothing I can say to make you change your mind, huh?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

That much was true. She was sorry; sorry that she would be absent from Finn’s new life, sorry that he would be absent from hers. She wished things were simpler, easier, that forgiveness came quickly and pain could be rapidly healed.

“I think we just need to be away from all this,” she said. “There’s still so much about the Force that I want to learn, still so much we both don’t understand. Still so much out there, temples and sacred places... we need to explore them, we need to understand our place in all this; what we’re meant to do, how we can help others like us.”

Finn looked up, his gaze tracking over her features and his eyes still sad.

“We’ve said goodbye before,” she added gently, “but it doesn’t mean forever. We’ll see each other again, I’m sure of it.”

The tiniest hint of a smile, and Rey slid her arms around him.

“Be careful, Rey.”

“I will. You too.”

It should have been harder to let go, a part of her acknowledged. Finn was one of her first real friends, he had always fought to be by her side, to help her, protect her.

Instead there was just peace, just certainty and knowing; complete confidence that Finn would be okay, that he would be happy, even without her presence.

 _Everything is as the Force wills it,_ she thought as she pulled away, giving Finn one final, soft smile before returning her gaze to the _Falcon_ , and her man in black at the foot of it.

He made the effort to stand when she finally made her way back to him, wincing despite the bacta he had been treated with, and she reached a hand out to steady him.

“Ready?” she asked.

That look in his eyes, that desperate, delicate hope; it felt like a hand squeezing her heart, it made her want to wrap her limbs around him and never let him go.

He nodded, still looking at her like he couldn’t believe she was there, ready to flee into the galaxy with him, ready to throw herself into the unknown with him.

She nodded back, stepping up the ramp before reaching back to take his hand.

_The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead._

Ahead, where the Force would lead them to dozens of planets, to hidden, forgotten temples, to sacred places so strong with the Force they would make Rey’s hair stand on end. Ahead, where sleeping apart from each other was a contemptible thought, where imagining a day that Rey didn’t get to kiss his soft, perfect lips was unthinkable. Ahead, where seeing him smile, feeling his happiness singing in the bond between them made her feel more blissful than she could ever imagine.

_Everything is as the Force wills it._

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly what I want at the end of EPIX. Give these kids a soft ending, JJ, I'm begging you.


End file.
